Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,
Whose trust, ever child-like, no cares could destroy,
Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray,
Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.

Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe,
Be there at our labours, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day.

Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
Your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.

Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day.

Jan Struther 1901 - 1953

Apparently the lady who wrote this hymn was an agnostic and an unenthusiastic church-goer?

The mind boggles!

This hymn has been a great blessing to me over the years.

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.

‘ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Gospel of Luke 12:16-21  ESV

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

Gospel of Mark 16:1-2  ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.

But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

For you were called to freedom, brothers.

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Pauls letter to the Galatians 5:1-26  ESV

When I was young, I was sure of many things; now there are only two things of which I am sure: one is, that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour. He is well-taught who learns these two lessons.

John Newton

Thought I would have a look at the new soon to be Windows OS.

I just could not get it to install from a disc ISO from the Microsoft site, I tried all the suggestions that were on offer, download again as it might have been corrupted, burn slower to disc, use different burning software.

Nothing worked, it just would not get passed a crucial stage of CD/DVD recognition after the initial boot and installation procedure.  I even tried installing off a thumb drive but still arrived at the same error.  I believe it is a SATA problem and until Microsoft sort it, it’s here to stay.

Thankfully there is a workaround, I was going to multiple boot anyway so it was a fine answer for me, all you need to do is unpack the Windows 7 software ISO to a folder on your hard drive, then run the setup.exe file and install it to the partition you have allocated for Win 7.  Worked ok for me.  Even the MBR is all done for you.

I must admit, it is very nice system to use.  Will be looking forward to this one I am sure.

I also upgraded to the new Wordpress 2.8 recently and for some reason images I post cannot be expanded to full size as they are clicked on?  I will have to inquire and see how it can be rectified as most of the images I post are better appreciated when viewed fully.

Purge

1. kathairo (G2508), akin to katharos (see PURE, A, No. 2), “to cleanse,” is used of pruning, Joh_15:2, KJV, “purgeth” (RV, “cleanseth”). In the Sept., 2Sa_4:6; Isa_28:27; Jer_38:28.

2. ekkathairo (G1571), “to cleanse out, cleanse thoroughly,” is said of “purging” out leaven, 1Co_5:7; in 2Ti_2:21, of “purging” oneself from those who utter “profane babblings,” 2Ti_2:16-18.

3. diakathairo (G1223 and G2508), “to cleanse thoroughly,” is translated “will throughly purge” in Luk_3:17, KJV (RV, “thoroughly to cleanse”; less authentic mss. have No. 5).

4. kathakizo (G2511), “to cleanse, make clean,” is translated “purging (all meats),” in Mar_7:19, KJV, RV, “making (all meats) clean”; Heb_9:14, KJV, “purge” (RV, “cleanse”); so Heb_9:22 (for Heb_9:23, see PURIFY) and Heb_10:2. See CLEAN, B, No. 1.

5. diakatharizo (G1245), “to cleanse thoroughly,” is translated “will throughly purge” in Mat_3:12, KJV. See CLEAN, B, No. 2. Cf. the synonymous verb No. 3.

Notes: (1) For Heb_1:3, KJV, “had purged,” see PURIFICATION. (2) For the KJV rendering of the noun katharismos, “cleansing,” “that he was purged,” see CLEAN, C, No. 1.

W.E. Vine.  Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’

But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’

And he was speechless.

Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Gospel of Matthew 22:1-14  ESV

Propitiation

A. Verb.

hilaskomai (G2433) was used amongst the Greeks with the significance “to make the gods propitious, to appease, propitiate,” inasmuch as their good will was not conceived as their natural attitude, but something to be earned first. This use of the word is foreign to the Greek Bible, with respect to God whether in the Sept. or in the NT. It is never used of any act whereby man brings God into a favorable attitude or gracious disposition. It is God who is “propitiated” by the vindication of His holy and righteous character, whereby through the provision He has made in the vicarious and expiatory sacrifice of Christ, He has so dealt with sin that He can show mercy to the believing sinner in the removal of his guilt and the remission of his sins.

Thus in Luk_18:13 it signifies “to be propitious” or “merciful to” (with the person as the object of the verb), and in Heb_2:17 “to expiate, to make propitiation for” (the object of the verb being sins); here the RV,”to make propitiation” is an important correction of the KJV “to make reconciliation.” Through the “propitiatory” sacrifice of Christ, he who believes upon Him is by God’s own act delivered from justly deserved wrath, and comes under the covenant of grace. Never is God said to be reconciled, a fact itself indicative that the enmity exists on man’s part alone, and that it is man who needs to be reconciled to God, and not God to man. God is always the same and, since He is Himself immutable, His relative attitude does change towards those who change. He can act differently towards those who come to Him by faith, and solely on the ground of the “propitiatory” sacrifice of Christ, not because He has changed, but because He ever acts according to His unchanging righteousness.

The expiatory work of the Cross is therefore the means whereby the barrier which sin interposes between God and man is broken down. By the giving up of His sinless life sacrificially, Christ annuls the power of sin to separate between God and the believer.

In the OT the Hebrew verb kaphar is connected with kopher, “a covering” (see MERCY SEAT), and is used in connection with the burnt offering, e.g., Lev_1:4; Lev_14:20; Lev_16:24, the guilt offering, e.g., Lev_5:16, Lev_5:18, the sin offering, e.g., Lev_4:20, Lev_4:26, Lev_4:31, Lev_4:35, the sin offering and burnt offering together, e.g., Lev_5:10; Lev_9:7, the meal offering and peace offering, e.g., Eze_45:15, Eze_45:17, as well as in other respects. It is used of the ram offered at the consecration of the high priest, Exo_29:33, and of the blood which God gave upon the altar to make “propitiation” for the souls of the people, and that because “the life of the flesh is in the blood,” Lev_17:11, and “it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life” (RV). Man has forfeited his life on account of sin and God has provided the one and only way whereby eternal life could be bestowed, namely, by the voluntary laying down of His life by His Son, under divine retribution. Of this the former sacrifices appointed by God were foreshadowings.

B. Nouns.

1. hilasterion (G2435), akin to A, is regarded as the neuter of an adjective signifying “propitiatory.” In the Sept. it is used adjectivally in connection with epithema, “a cover,” in Exo_25:17 and Exo_37:6, of the lid of the ark (see MERCY SEAT), but it is used as a noun (without epithema), of locality, in Exo_25:18, Exo_25:19, Exo_25:20, Exo_25:21, Exo_25:22; Exo_31:7; Exo_35:12; Exo_37:7, Exo_37:8, Exo_37:9; Lev_16:2, Lev_16:13, Lev_16:14, Lev_16:15; Num_7:89, and this is its use in Heb_9:5.

Elsewhere in the NT it occurs in Rom_3:25, where it is used of Christ Himself; the RV text and punctuation in this verse are important: “whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by His blood.” The phrase “by His blood” is to be taken in immediate connection with “propitiation.” Christ, through His expiatory death, is the personal means by whom God shows the mercy of His justifying grace to the sinner who believes. His “blood” stands for the voluntary giving up of His life, by the shedding of His blood in expiatory sacrifice under divine judgment righteously due to us as sinners, faith being the sole condition on man’s part.

Note: “By metonymy, ‘blood’ is sometimes put for ‘death,’ inasmuch as, blood being essential to life, Lev_17:11, when the blood is shed life is given up, that is, death takes place. The fundamental principle on which God deals with sinners is expressed in the words ‘apart from shedding of blood,’ i.e., unless a death takes place, ‘there is no remission’ of sins, Heb_9:22.

“But whereas the essential of the type lay in the fact that blood was shed, the essential of the antitype lies in this, that the blood shed was that of Christ. Hence, in connection with Jewish sacrifices, ‘the blood’ is mentioned without reference to the victim from which it flowed, but in connection with the great antitypical sacrifice of the NT the words ‘the blood’ never stand alone; the One Who shed the blood is invariably specified, for it is the Person that gives value to the work; the saving efficacy of the Death depends entirely upon the fact that He Who died was the Son of God.”*

* From Notes on Thessalonians by Hogg and Vine, p. 168.

2. hilasmos (G2434), akin to hileos (”merciful, propitious”), signifies “an expiation, a means whereby sin is covered and remitted.” It is used in the NT of Christ Himself as “the propitiation,” in 1Jo_2:2 and 1Jo_4:10, signifying that He Himself, through the expiatory sacrifice of His death, is the personal means by whom God shows mercy to the sinner who believes on Christ as the One thus provided. In the former passage He is described as “the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” The italicized addition in the KJV, “the sins of,” gives a wrong interpretation. What is indicated is that provision is made for the whole world, so that no one is, by divine predetermination, excluded from the scope of God’s mercy; the efficacy of the “propitiation,” however, is made actual for those who believe. In 1Jo_4:10, the fact that God “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” is shown to be the great expression of God’s love toward man, and the reason why Christians should love one another. In the Sept., Lev_25:9; Num_5:8; 1Ch_28:20; Psa_130:4; Eze_44:27; Amo_8:14.

W.E. Vine.  Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.

Peace, Peaceable, Peaceably.

N. Noun.

eirene (G1515) “occurs in each of the books of the NT, save 1 John and save in Act_7:26 ['(at) one again'] it is translated “peace” in the RV. It describes (a) harmonious relationships between men, Mat_10:34; Rom_14:19; (b) between nations, Luk_14:32; Act_12:20; Rev_6:4; (c) friendliness, Act_15:33; 1Co_16:11; Heb_11:31; (d) freedom from molestation, Luk_11:21; Luk_19:42; Act_9:31 (RV, ‘peace,’ KJV, ‘rest’); Act_16:36; (e) order, in the State, Act_24:2 (RV, ‘peace,’ KJV, ‘quietness’); in the churches, 1Co_14:33; (f) the harmonized relationships between God and man, accomplished through the gospel, Act_10:36; Eph_2:17; (g) the sense of rest and contentment consequent thereon, Mat_10:13; Mar_5:34; Luk_1:79; Luk_2:29; Joh_14:27; Rom_1:7; Rom_3:17; Rom_8:6; in certain passages this idea is not distinguishable from the last, Rom_5:1.”*
* From Notes on Thessalonians by Hogg and Vine, p. 154.

“The God of peace” is a title used in Rom_15:33; Rom_16:20; Phi_4:9; 1Th_5:23; Heb_13:20; cf. 1Co_14:33; 2Co_13:11. The corresponding Heb. word shalom primarily signifies “wholeness”: see its use in Jos_8:31, “unhewn”; Rth_2:12, “full”; Neh_6:15, “finished”; Isa_42:19, marg., “made perfect.” Hence there is a close connection between the title in 1Th_5:23 and the word holokleros, “entire,” in that verse. In the Sept. shalom is often rendered by soteria, “salvation, e.g., Gen_26:31; Gen_41:16; hence the “peace-offering” is called the “salvation offering.” Cf. Luk_7:50; Luk_8:48. In 2Th_3:16, the title “the Lord of peace” is best understood as referring to the Lord Jesus. In Act_7:26, “would have set them at one” is, lit., “was reconciling them (conative imperfect tense, expressing an earnest effort) into peace.”

B. Verbs.

1. eireneuo (G1514), primarily, “to bring to peace, reconcile,” denotes in the NT, “to keep peace or to be at peace”: in Mar_9:50, RV, the Lord bids the disciples “be at peace” with one another, gently rebuking their ambitious desires; in Rom_12:18 (RV, “be at peace,” KJV, “live peaceably”) the limitation “if it be possible, as much as in you lieth,” seems due to the phrase “with all men,” but is not intended to excuse any evasion of the obligation imposed by the command; in 2Co_13:11 it is rendered “live in peace,” a general exhortation to believers; in 1Th_5:13, “be at peace (among yourselves).”

2. eirenopoieo (G1517), “to make peace” (eirene, and poieo, “to make”), is used in Col_1:20. In the Sept., Pro_10:10.

C. Adjective.

eirenikos (G1516), akin to A, denotes “peaceful.” It is used (a) of the fruit of righteousness, Heb_12:11, “peaceable” (or “peaceful”) because it is produced in communion with God the Father, through His chastening; (b) of “the wisdom that is from above,” Jam_3:17.
Note: In 1Ti_2:2, KJV, hesuchios, “quiet,” is translated “peaceable” (RV, “quiet”).

W.E. Vine.  Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.